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[Lumyst]

Hah, that's awesome, so Neverland themselves are the ones who put that kind of humor in the game! (I'm sorry for being worried about whether stuff like that was faithful to the original game, so I was wrong to worry.)

Looks like you're right ManGod, I might just be imagining things.

 

[vareon]

That wasn't anything XSEED added. It was in the Japanese original. There are tweaks to be sure, but that reference (and possibly others) are in-jokes from the dev team.

That's surprising, lol. Never thought we'd get a Skyrim joke from a Japanese developer.

 

[Mononoke]

EDIT: Oops, didn't realize that no one posted in this thread since my last question (thought this was more active), now I feel foolish.

 

[Mononoke]

Had a question. With regards to getting someone to accept a date, you have to be level 7 is my understanding (the higher the level, the greater chance they won't take it as a joke). But I wanted to clear something up. You can only try ONCE a day correct? And is it 100% random? Like..if I save, then ask, could I just shut the game off, and keep trying over and over? Or is it already set in stone once the day starts, whether they are going to accept or reject.

I guess the smart answer is, to just play the game and not waste your time. If they say yes, they say yes. Either way, just carry on and do what you normally do. But was kind of confused about how it worked.

 

[ronito]

Had a question. With regards to getting someone to accept a date, you have to be level 7 is my understanding (the higher the level, the greater chance they won't take it as a joke). But I wanted to clear something up. You can only try ONCE a day correct? And is it 100% random? Like..if I save, then ask, could I just shut the game off, and keep trying over and over? Or is it already set in stone once the day starts, whether they are going to accept or reject.

I guess the smart answer is, to just play the game and not waste your time. If they say yes, they say yes. Either way, just carry on and do what you normally do. But was kind of confused about how it worked.

I guess you could do it that way. But I never got a date until I had them heart level 8.

The marriage thing though is really broken. I have Clorica at heart level 15 and Margaret at 11 I've done the "day trick" a few times. I've gotten to what I think is the last main story boss and I still can't trigger their events. It's starting to get me pissed off. This might be the first rune factory that I've played where I didn't get married just cause I'm tired of waiting for the random event to trigger. I hope they fix that next iteration. Another thing that I've noticed is that it has the american healthcare system type. "Oh you got knocked out? Well, I'll just take 60% of your money."

 

[ronito]

So I finished the main game and am going after the post-game content. And it's now that the biggest flaw suddenly becomes glaring. The event system (used to move the story, drive proposals and all that) is terribly broken. Almost to Runeys in Rune Factory Frontier levels of broken. And if you've played that game you know that means game breaking.

The fact that events are totally random and, even worse, that only one can run at a time breaks the game especially in the post game. Further the trigger points for these events very sensitive, if you don't go into a screen via a certain entrance you'll miss it entirely. I was stuck on Vishnal's event for nearly 3 weeks game time because of this. Further still, the post game content is triggered via an event that is also random, which some players spent a year of game time trying to trigger. I spent my play time last night just doing the "sleep trick" which you put your bachelorette in your party and just sleep until they leave and that tells you that an event's been triggered in hopes of getting either a proposal event or trigger the post game stuff. I got like 4 events. But none of them were the events I was hoping to trigger.

They really need to fix this, just like I wouldn't buy another Rune factory with the same Runey system as Frontier I don't think I I could do another Rune Factory with the same event system.

 

[Lumyst]

Then I will have to brace myself (I'm only at the fight with "Dolly"). I'm about 90% done with 3, 90% done with Tides of Destiny, and...ugh 70% done with 2 (I'm up to the boss at the Padova Mountains), that's the one I'm actually giving the most attention to right now.

So here's a "stupid" question, how are the elemental benefits set up? (that's something I've just been guessing about for the whole series so far.) I've just been "brute forcing" my way through the series so far but perhaps it would be nice to exploit the elemental benefits from here on out when crafting.

 

[afreaknamedpete]

So I finished the main game and am going after the post-game content. And it's now that the biggest flaw suddenly becomes glaring. The event system (used to move the story, drive proposals and all that) is terribly broken. Almost to Runeys in Rune Factory Frontier levels of broken. And if you've played that game you know that means game breaking.

The fact that events are totally random and, even worse, that only one can run at a time breaks the game especially in the post game. Further the trigger points for these events very sensitive, if you don't go into a screen via a certain entrance you'll miss it entirely. I was stuck on Vishnal's event for nearly 3 weeks game time because of this. Further still, the post game content is triggered via an event that is also random, which some players spent a year of game time trying to trigger. I spent my play time last night just doing the "sleep trick" which you put your bachelorette in your party and just sleep until they leave and that tells you that an event's been triggered in hopes of getting either a proposal event or trigger the post game stuff. I got like 4 events. But none of them were the events I was hoping to trigger.

They really need to fix this, just like I wouldn't buy another Rune factory with the same Runey system as Frontier I don't think I I could do another Rune Factory with the same event system.

I THINK that the event for the 3rd arc starts with Dylas and Amber, so it'll help to have them in your party if you're sleeping through till the 3rd arc. I'm not positive since I'm still waiting for the 3rd arc.

Then I will have to brace myself (I'm only at the fight with "Dolly"). I'm about 90% done with 3, 90% done with Tides of Destiny, and...ugh 70% done with 2 (I'm up to the boss at the Padova Mountains), that's the one I'm actually giving the most attention to right now.

So here's a "stupid" question, how are the elemental benefits set up? (that's something I've just been guessing about for the whole series so far.) I've just been "brute forcing" my way through the series so far but perhaps it would be nice to exploit the elemental benefits from here on out when crafting.

On an unrelated note, how is Tides of Destiny? I see it for pretty cheap on PSN, though I've heard people say it's one of the worst rune factories.

 

[Flarin]

...

Thank you for the detailed reply! Much appreciated. I'm looking to pick this up this week!

 

[zigg]

On an unrelated note, how is Tides of Destiny? I see it for pretty cheap on PSN, though I've heard people say it's one of the worst rune factories.

Depends on how attached you are to traditional farming.

My kid and I both liked it just fine. I'm not attached, and she's never played HM/RF before

 

[Niahak]

So I finished the main game and am going after the post-game content. And it's now that the biggest flaw suddenly becomes glaring. The event system (used to move the story, drive proposals and all that) is terribly broken. Almost to Runeys in Rune Factory Frontier levels of broken. And if you've played that game you know that means game breaking.

Yeah, I've been doing the same thing and it makes things a real slog. I passed the time by growing giant produce and getting crop levels to 9 (haven't reached smithing skill for the top scythe yet - think without it, that's as good as I can get).

I used a more reasonable variant of the "sleep" trick where I have the character in my party, tend to my crops in the morning and then go to sleep around 8ish. Doesn't go as quick, but when you skip the festivals and running around talking to people it goes much more quickly than normal.

When I get tired of that, I go to

Spoiler

Leon Karnak

since you can explore it without actually unlocking the 3rd arc. I figure that way at least my equipment and levels will be decent for the post-game.

I understand what they tried to do with the event system, but it just isn't very well balanced. It does break things up nicely between the festivals when you're not event-hunting -- but then, they probably should've had fewer festivals. There are what, about 5-6 a month or more? Sometimes it seems like every other day is "today's a festival!" or "tomorrow's a festival!"

 

[Hatsuu]

That wasn't anything XSEED added. It was in the Japanese original. There are tweaks to be sure, but that reference (and possibly others) are in-jokes from the dev team.

Backing this one up, and I'm sad because I didn't realize it was still in there (I too, am tired of the that meme). There were soldier NPC descriptions in our text that I don't think made it into the final game itself (unless you can 'tame' enemy soldiers with food and I'm totally unaware of it?), and every single one of them had Skyrim references. There were quite a few pop culture references in the Japanese, so basically the game was wide open for that sort of thing. It didn't take itself seriously, so it was perfect for us. We left a few of the originals in there, but then added some where we could. My favorites are the type where someone who doesn't know the reference can read the line and not think anything of it because it so perfectly fits within the context of the dialogue, but a fan will read it and understand instantly and appreciate it. I adore references of that sort.

 

[ronito]

Depends on how attached you are to traditional farming.

My kid and I both liked it just fine. I'm not attached, and she's never played HM/RF before

I personally didn't like Tides much, though I felt that the characters were better in Tides than any other iteration. Overall I think they streamlined everything that make RF fun.

These were my thoughts from that thread:

Don't get me wrong, Tides wasn't bad. It's just not what I want in a Rune Factory game.
The thing I love about Rune Factory was searching out the rare animals and tending your field, crafting and saving up for the next big purchase.

But Tides streamlines everything to point where all that stuff is mainly gone. Farming is essentially gone, your monsters do all but the planting for you. Now that's nice, and cuts out some of the tedium. But the problem is that you can only have a set number of monsters and each monster can only plant certain kinds of crops. Further where they plant is random. Lastly it's way too easy. Any halfway competent player will have their fields completely automated rather early in the game.

Which means you'll be rolling in crops and money. I remember in RFF it took me almost 3 seasons to get to the point where I had most of the stuff. Here I had everything except one storage bin by the end of the first season. So really after the first season there wasn't much to work towards and it's not like I "power leveled" or anything. That's just the progression, in fact if anything I was a little slow because I didn't find out how to assign monsters for a few days.

Crafting is sorta borked too. RFF had a ton of recipes and a gradual curve. Here not so much. You get recipes from quests but you don't know which ones. It was better just to save up and buy them from the bookstore. Here you might/might not get the recipes you need and because of that you might have gaps which make crafting leveling harder.

Essentially they streamlined everything to focus mainly on the dungeons and exploration. Which to me was the weakest part of the series. If I wanted to explore dungeons I'd play Zelda or Etrian odyssey. I see Tides as a good experiment, fun to experience once but not the direction I want the series to take.

Yeah, I've been doing the same thing and it makes things a real slog. I passed the time by growing giant produce and getting crop levels to 9 (haven't reached smithing skill for the top scythe yet - think without it, that's as good as I can get).

I used a more reasonable variant of the "sleep" trick where I have the character in my party, tend to my crops in the morning and then go to sleep around 8ish. Doesn't go as quick, but when you skip the festivals and running around talking to people it goes much more quickly than normal.

When I get tired of that, I go to

Spoiler

Leon Karnak

since you can explore it without actually unlocking the 3rd arc. I figure that way at least my equipment and levels will be decent for the post-game.

I understand what they tried to do with the event system, but it just isn't very well balanced. It does break things up nicely between the festivals when you're not event-hunting -- but then, they probably should've had fewer festivals. There are what, about 5-6 a month or more? Sometimes it seems like every other day is "today's a festival!" or "tomorrow's a festival!"

Yeah that's the killer part for me is that only one event can run at any given time. So that entire time I had Vishnal's event that took like 3 weeks in game time nothing moved forward. If they had it so you could have a festival and still progress or have an event and still progress. I'd be cool with it. But putting the ebreak on the game because you haven't dealt with it yet is a terrible choice. Also making it completely random is also a terrible choice.

 

[ronito]

So I finallly unlocked the right proposal event as well as the post game (third arch) event. It took 3 seasons game time. Honestly, I don't know how long it would take to get that if you didn't do the "sleep" trick. I'm a very efficient player (just do what needs doing and move on) so perhaps it takes longer to unlock events in the main story because I'm busy in dungeons or farming and such. But my wife is one of those "I can't have my character go to sleep until the game day is done." kinds of players. But even with her pace I can totally see it taking an absurdly long amount of time.

They really need to fix that.

 

[zigg]

Haha, everyone was just standing around (post-dungeon 3 spoiler)

Spoiler

a collapsed, sickly Venti

wishing me a happy birthday.

(yeah, I'm taking it kind of slow)

 

[ronito]

Haha, everyone was just standing around (post-dungeon 3 spoiler)

Spoiler

a collapsed, sickly Venti

wishing me a happy birthday.

(yeah, I'm taking it kind of slow)

lol it gets funnier post game. It's like the characters are unaware of have forgotten what just happened.

As for me I might be in a game breaking bug.

I finally unlocked the post game, went into Leon Karnak, I put something on a switch which then locked off where I'm supposed to go but now I can't get the thing off the switch.

Man, and after all that time I spent doing the sleep trick to unlock the post stuff too.

 

[ronito]

So I got around the "bug" I was just being stupid. Just make sure to destroy all boxes in Leon Karnak if you're stuck.

But is it really that if you escape from a dungeon in Leon Karnak you have to refight all the bosses? What a pain.

 

[vareon]

So I just beat

Spoiler

Ethelbert with his typical RPG godly final boss form.

Any more story content after this?

 

[Niahak]

So I just beat

Spoiler

Ethelbert with his typical RPG godly final boss form.

Any more story content after this?

Yeah, there's additional content but it apparently takes a while to trigger since it's a

Spoiler

sub-event that triggers an additional couple of dungeons.

I haven't gotten it to happen yet myself, some people have complained about it taking a month to a year to happen. In the meantime you can fight some tougher enemies in

Spoiler

Leon Karnak, but you can't access the inner areas

.

In the meantime I've been growing lots of produce (especially giant produce) and spending every day making a new weapon and getting it to lv10 with iron to build up my forging skills enough to get the ultimate sickle... I finally got it and shipped my wonderful lv10 turnips.

Does anyone know if the "Ship all non-golden veggies" request requires all types of giant produce as well? It's pretty tedious to grow that stuff.

What makes it worse is that I *have* grown some golden ones too (from seeds I got

Spoiler

on floating continent

, I think). I shipped one of each type, but I can't buy the seeds from the store yet. I guess in the meantime I can get super-rich off of giant pumpkins.

 

[ronito]

So has anyone actually finished the "post game" content?
I unlocked the event (it took nearly a year game time) but by the time I unlocked it my patience had run out.

 

[vareon]

So how do I complete the ship extra large veggies (or flowers)? I'm pretty sure I shipped some large ones using the giantizer.

 

[Paskil]

Just hit Fall and beat the main story was fighting the final battle

Spoiler

and got my daily payout at 8 on Fall 1 when everyone was supposed to be at the rune sites praying for me, lol

.

I have a lot of stuff to do. Can I force the next, post-game event to start? I read somewhere you have to have

Spoiler

Amber and Dylas in one of the stores

or something. Can I get them in my party and take them in to force it? I have a lot of materials to grind out. I have all six barns built and every one of them still need 1/2 wings. I plan on getting a bunch of cows so I can spam cheesecake or something for profit. I just got my dungeon seed and am kind of scared of planting it. I might wait until winter because I don't want to lose the plant to a hurricane. Do hurricanes effect the winter zone? I could just plant it there since it takes 18 days.

I'm really liking the game so far. Rune Factory 3 (was big into Harvest Moon with FoMT being one of my favorite grindy RPGs) was my entry point and I like it in most respects a lot more than that game.

 

[Niahak]

So how do I complete the ship extra large veggies (or flowers)? I'm pretty sure I shipped some large ones using the giantizer.

Did you plant 4 in a "square" and let them wait an extra day and combine into 1?

There's an intermediate where an individual crop "looks larger", but it's just kind of a warning/signal that if there are four of those together they'll combine in to the one giant crop. To get actually giant produce you have to wait the extra day (and they may not combine based on tile fertility / size status, which is frustrating - pile on more greenifier/giantizer).

Giant produce has a different name, too (e.g. Tyrant Turnip).

 

[ronito]

Just hit Fall and beat the main story was fighting the final battle

Spoiler

and got my daily payout at 8 on Fall 1 when everyone was supposed to be at the rune sites praying for me, lol

.

I have a lot of stuff to do. Can I force the next, post-game event to start? I read somewhere you have to have

Spoiler

Amber and Dylas in one of the stores

or something. Can I get them in my party and take them in to force it? I have a lot of materials to grind out. I have all six barns built and every one of them still need 1/2 wings. I plan on getting a bunch of cows so I can spam cheesecake or something for profit. I just got my dungeon seed and am kind of scared of planting it. I might wait until winter because I don't want to lose the plant to a hurricane. Do hurricanes effect the winter zone? I could just plant it there since it takes 18 days.

I'm really liking the game so far. Rune Factory 3 (was big into Harvest Moon with FoMT being one of my favorite grindy RPGs) was my entry point and I like it in most respects a lot more than that game.

To unlock the post game:

Spoiler

You need to have Dylas and Amber to friendship level 7. That's really it but you will have to clear any town events that come up before that. Which will be quite a few. Further, it's completely random when it kicks in. So here's how I unlocked it. Get Amber and Dylas to level 7 friendship. Then put someone in your party (for me it was margaret but you can use Amber or Dylas). Then leave them in your party and go to sleep. If you wake up and they don't say "I have to go" you didn't trigger it. If they do, you triggered AN event, it doesn't necessarily mean it's THE event. Further check your diary before you go to sleep and make sure there's no town event going on. If they leave follow where they go and usually just wait until 8-9am game time to talk to them. If they don't say anything about the post game stuff you've probably unlocked a different town event, you'll have to clear that one first (I had to clear like 5 or 6 of them before I got the post game event). Keep in mind that events progress based upon where you enter the screen from and that the person involved isn't in your party. Also keep in mind that some events only progress after a game day meaning once you've seen the little cutscene for that day you need to sleep for the next one to happen.

I believe the way the post game event starts is actually Leon says something cryptic. I don't believe it's Amber or Dylas that kicks it off. Then you have to sleep and then the next guardian says something cryptic. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the guardians and then you'll get a cutscene in Venti's room and that's when you've unlocked the final dungeons. Like I said for me it took 3/4 of a game year

 

[Flarin]

I'm so behind everyone else in here haha, but I'm about 10 hours in and loving it.

My entry to the series was Tides, but I'm liking 4 a lot better. I actually enjoy the tedium of a schedule every day, like in past Harvest Moon games. It's fun tending to the farm, crafting here and there, doing some requests, and talking to the people.

Some of the bosses are kind of annoying, but thankfully Forte is a good meat shield tank and healer.

Some questions for people in post game:

How well do you need to keep up with the fertilizer? Will throwing in random weeds and grass work okay?

What levels do I need to be for recipe bread to teach me new things? I'm crafting/ cooking a lot, but it keeps telling me I didn't learn anything.

 

[Paskil]

To unlock the post game:

Spoiler

You need to have Dylas and Amber to friendship level 7. That's really it but you will have to clear any town events that come up before that. Which will be quite a few. Further, it's completely random when it kicks in. So here's how I unlocked it. Get Amber and Dylas to level 7 friendship. Then put someone in your party (for me it was margaret but you can use Amber or Dylas). Then leave them in your party and go to sleep. If you wake up and they don't say "I have to go" you didn't trigger it. If they do, you triggered AN event, it doesn't necessarily mean it's THE event. Further check your diary before you go to sleep and make sure there's no town event going on. If they leave follow where they go and usually just wait until 8-9am game time to talk to them. If they don't say anything about the post game stuff you've probably unlocked a different town event, you'll have to clear that one first (I had to clear like 5 or 6 of them before I got the post game event). Keep in mind that events progress based upon where you enter the screen from and that the person involved isn't in your party. Also keep in mind that some events only progress after a game day meaning once you've seen the little cutscene for that day you need to sleep for the next one to happen.

I believe the way the post game event starts is actually Leon says something cryptic. I don't believe it's Amber or Dylas that kicks it off. Then you have to sleep and then the next guardian says something cryptic. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the guardians and then you'll get a cutscene in Venti's room and that's when you've unlocked the final dungeons. Like I said for me it took 3/4 of a game year

Awesome. I kept seeing people mentioning a sleep trick and had no idea what it was. Thanks for explaining it so thoroughly, you're good people.

 

[Niahak]

How well do you need to keep up with the fertilizer? Will throwing in random weeds and grass work okay?

What levels do I need to be for recipe bread to teach me new things? I'm crafting/ cooking a lot, but it keeps telling me I didn't learn anything.

I have to occasionally buy a bunch of grasses / antidote herbs (sometimes Arthur sells them, but you can also get them in the flower shop) to refill my fertilizer bin. If it's at 0 every morning, that probably is making your field quality decline (although it's unclear how much it helps!). I think it takes up somewhere between 4-6 grasses every day. I'm not sure whether that increased when I got a second field.

If you're strapped for cash you can hunt for grasses in the fields south and west of the city. Antidote herbs work as well as any grass or weeds.

Level to learn new things from bread varies. Usually you can learn things 5-10 levels ahead of where you're at. I found that there are a LOT fewer recipes for cooking past around level 60, especially if you don't fish much, and there's not much for weaponry past around level 50 (but weaponry is also restricted some by your skill level with that kind of weaponry). You can't get the materials for accessories/weapons past 40 until you hit the post game in any case.

For recipe bread, I just have some of each type on hand and check every couple of levels to see if I can learn anything new.

 

[zigg]

What levels do I need to be for recipe bread to teach me new things? I'm crafting/ cooking a lot, but it keeps telling me I didn't learn anything.

You may also be missing equipment. Cooking bread'll tell you you aren't leveled enough when in reality the real problem is that you haven't bought the knife, pot, etc. yet.

 

[vareon]

Did you plant 4 in a "square" and let them wait an extra day and combine into 1?

There's an intermediate where an individual crop "looks larger", but it's just kind of a warning/signal that if there are four of those together they'll combine in to the one giant crop. To get actually giant produce you have to wait the extra day (and they may not combine based on tile fertility / size status, which is frustrating - pile on more greenifier/giantizer).

Giant produce has a different name, too (e.g. Tyrant Turnip).

Much appreciated, thanks! So I just need to keep watering them until they merged.

To unlock the post game:

Spoiler

You need to have Dylas and Amber to friendship level 7. That's really it but you will have to clear any town events that come up before that. Which will be quite a few. Further, it's completely random when it kicks in. So here's how I unlocked it. Get Amber and Dylas to level 7 friendship. Then put someone in your party (for me it was margaret but you can use Amber or Dylas). Then leave them in your party and go to sleep. If you wake up and they don't say "I have to go" you didn't trigger it. If they do, you triggered AN event, it doesn't necessarily mean it's THE event. Further check your diary before you go to sleep and make sure there's no town event going on. If they leave follow where they go and usually just wait until 8-9am game time to talk to them. If they don't say anything about the post game stuff you've probably unlocked a different town event, you'll have to clear that one first (I had to clear like 5 or 6 of them before I got the post game event). Keep in mind that events progress based upon where you enter the screen from and that the person involved isn't in your party. Also keep in mind that some events only progress after a game day meaning once you've seen the little cutscene for that day you need to sleep for the next one to happen.

I believe the way the post game event starts is actually Leon says something cryptic. I don't believe it's Amber or Dylas that kicks it off. Then you have to sleep and then the next guardian says something cryptic. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the guardians and then you'll get a cutscene in Venti's room and that's when you've unlocked the final dungeons. Like I said for me it took 3/4 of a game year

I unlocked the

Spoiler

Amber and Dylas talking something about back door

without any hassle. I'm taking it slow and already in Winter, though.

It's funny that I have spent over 70 hours in the game yet I still don't know some of the basics. Now that I reach post-game and finally read the wiki, there's still a shitload of content I can explore. Game is awesome.

 

[Lumyst]

Oh yeah, I've gotten to the Shrine in RF2, and I seem to have read that there's going to be more bosses after the final boss?!? How long after the last boss would it take to get to and defeat the last-last boss, are there more dungeons or is it simply about leveling things up?

(And as for RF4 I've just made it to the "lava cave", I like the throwback music to Clemens Cave, though for me it only makes me nostalgic for...5 months ago. Come to think of it, I beat the boss of Clemens cave while waiting in the courthouse for possible Jury duty, so nostalgia indeed.)

 

[Milamber]

Decided to put RF4 down for a bit due to random event fatigue. Started a new game of RF3 last week and waiting for random golden seeds is torture.

 

[vareon]

Wow, Rune Prana does not joke around. I had to grind a bit for better weapon and armor only to get curbstomped in the next floor.

The story portion of the "post-game" seems pretty significant, even.

 

[zigg]

Having a hard time grinding forging because I can't seem to get good ores. Gold would really be helpful now. Is it my hammer?

 

[ronito]

Having a hard time grinding forging because I can't seem to get good ores. Gold would really be helpful now. Is it my hammer?

What hammer do you have and where are you in the game? Yeah having a better hammer unlocks better ores. But you have to be at a certain part of the game to get gold.

 

[zigg]

What hammer do you have and where are you in the game? Yeah having a better hammer unlocks better ores. But you have to be at a certain part of the game to get gold.

Iron hammer and I've got two Rune Spheres.

EDIT: Never mind, I think I have a route to the silver hammer now. Need more RP and I have a few other things to grind.

In the process, had this conversation with Illuminata (who was happy to go adventuring in her swimsuit):

 

[zigg]

Aaaaand looks like I'm on to the second arc. That was kind of a cool ending for the first one.

 

[vareon]

Okay, I hit the point where I just need to bet Act 3 boss, yet what I really wanted is to get married. No such luck, and I don't like doing the sleep trick because it made the game less natural. It does bother me why you have to wait for an event to happen randomly to propose when I had the ring with me all the time.

 

[vareon]

Double post, but it's been a while and I wanted to post my final impression.

At 102 hours, I'm very pleased with what I get in this game. My first 70 or so hours consisted of me not knowing anything but don't want to read FAQs and only read minimal information on forums, so I had some very fun discoveries in the game. This is my first playthrough yet I have already planned another playthrough sometime next year after I finished a few more games. Even now I haven't completed Sharance Maze and haven't had a child.

Some of my thoughts:
- Everything was quick and smoooooooth. Screens loaded quickly, menus popped open instantly, etc. I kept going back from Pokemon to this and this feels heavenly.
- I thought I would be overwhelmed with the systems and abundant choices, not to mention time that keeps ticking indoor. Surprisingly I didn't! The game is pretty flexible in terms of schedules and it doesn't punish you for doing things ineffectively.
- Story was nothing special. One thing that doesn't work is how

Spoiler

the game keeps describing Lest and Ventuswill being the best of buddies yet Venti was either asleep or not there at all during like 3/4 of my game

. Act 3 ending was underwhelming, too.
- Script is amazing, and the translation work must be monumental given the amount of texts I found. Amazing job by XSEED.
- "3D effects" was broken and I don't even know how this gets past QC.
- Random events. I get what they're trying to do. They wanted the world to be much more alive, so not all events are triggered by Lest and some of them just happened. But the implementation is almost broken when a player clearly knows what Lest needs to do yet the events are locked.

Mostly, I'm impressed by how much freedom the game offers instead of imposing certain objectives that might lead players into the most effective style of playing. I'll have another playthrough next year and wait patiently for Rune Factory 5, if any.

 

[Lumyst]

Come to think of it, I still haven't married in any of the RF's I've played except when the story forced it (and even then it's just the default choice that I choose)! And there's those post-game bosses in RFF too, I also haven't raised everybody's levels to 10 in RFF to see their events. I have reasons to go back and play the previous games, and I still haven't gotten far in RF4. Or beaten the main stories, let alone done all the other stuff, in 2, 3, and ToD. The dilemma of the gamer has fallen onto me: I add to the backlog at a rate faster than I can finish past games!

RF2 though, it's taking very long, I may have to pull a RFF and not defeat the secret bosses just so I can move on to another game

 

[zigg]

Come to think of it, I still haven't married in any of the RF's I've played except when the story forced it (and even then it's just the default choice that I choose)!

I tend to operate like that as well. RF2 was the first time I did the marriage thing and it sort of scarred me as my favorite character in the game became a Stepford wife. 😢 RF3 I don't recall being so bad, but I was still sort of annoyed I had to do it. Much more fun to stay single. 😉

 

[witchedwiz]

eu boy: can i haz my rune factory?
ty

 

[BuckRobotron]

Been moving forward with this after some annoyance with the random triggering. Now apparently deep into the end-game dungeon

Spoiler

Rune Prana

and post-marriage and kid with Dolce. I left it random and we had a boy. Cute kid.

I'm impressed with how there are various marriage-specific voiced moments you encounter over time. Despite being in a lot of my games, I still enjoy hearing Laura Bailey (as Dolce). Also got some random events with the child growing up with the help of the community that are fun to watch. I found myself amazed that the Doctor didn't charge me for helping the kid after he tripped during a scripted errand lol.

Battle gameplay has gotten nicely challenging near the end. However, a quick trip to the craft table for an accessory that minimizes damage from the enemy's latest favorite elemental attacks generally takes care of things.

 

[Lumyst]

I tend to operate like that as well. RF2 was the first time I did the marriage thing and it sort of scarred me as my favorite character in the game became a Stepford wife. �� RF3 I don't recall being so bad, but I was still sort of annoyed I had to do it. Much more fun to stay single. ��

Oh yeah! I married Mana to get it over with but all of a sudden she seems very, "generic" towards Aria rather than loving And the trio of friends seems to have been broken up, so on festivals it's just the big-boobed fortune teller standing by herself (can't believe I can't really remember her name, and I just played some RF2 this morning!) Maybe if I go the full game and

Spoiler

get Kyle back

there will be some "love" in the household?!? It's just so weird to see even Douglas become "cold" and generic too, to his granddaughter no less! I hope that Shara doesn't become like this when I get to the marriage part of RF3. Though it will be with a heavy heart that I make the choice of Shara, so as not to deviate from my policy of keeping the story as it should, because there are so many appealing marriage choices in RF3, I'd even say that all of them have their pluses. Perhaps it's because Micah has his own problems and that he actually has emotional moments with every candidate, that it seems more believable to "get married" in RF3. RFF also has its moments where the main character actually has believable, emotional events where he brings out the best in the girls when they're in trouble or have doubts about themselves. I hope RF4 will have those kinds of moments too, and if it doesn't, that any future games do. I want those (possibly cheesy) "life lesson" moments dang it!

 

[Roubjon]

So apparently the Rune Factory developer Neverland are filing for bankruptcy?

Well that sucks. I suppose RF4 didn't do as well as it needed to

 

[CTLance]

So apparently the Rune Factory developer Neverland are filing for bankruptcy?

Well that sucks. I suppose RF4 didn't do as well as it needed to

Thing is, it did pretty damn well. However, most of the dosh went to MMV, the guys that hold the IP for Harvest Moon and Rune Factory. The code slaves at Neverland apparently didn't see enough money to stay profitable. Seems like management bungled their financial planning, given how they drowned in debt.

Duckroll thread on this.

Now excuse me while I drown my sorrow in cheap booze.

 

[Frosteey]

I finished this thing.

105-110 hours, Fall 3 Year 3

Still have to get married and finish a few of the request box things. Probably going to finish the bonus dungeon too. Also if you go on a date to the general store with people you can buy them gifts and they'll show up as search spots in their room that you can get dialogue for. So I need to make money so I can buy the 10 million dollar one for everybody.

Game hit a really good pacing stride right around when I unlocked the final story dungeon. Unless you get really lucky and find an insanely good weapon somewhere or cheese and tame some overpowered pets you need to craft a bunch of equipment to really handle each new floor or every other floor, so you need to spend a lot of time gathering materials and doing crafting. On top of that there's relaxing grinding in field dungeons, a bunch of requests that were generally like season-long farming goals, dates every other day, and the interspersed town events and festivals.

Also I just soft reset for the town event that unlocks the last dungeon, took like three minutes maybe, not that big of a deal.

10/10

 

[zigg]

Now excuse me while I drown my sorrow in cheap booze.

Dammit, me too.

 

[Roubjon]

So is it completely random when someone actually responds when you tell them you love them once you reach level 7 relationship? It's taking a while... :/

 

[ronito]

So is it completely random when someone actually responds when you tell them you love them once you reach level 7 relationship? It's taking a while... :/

Yup, completely. I actually had one of them at like heart level 10 before they responded. Sucks

 

[The Awesomest]

I started playing this. It took me a little while to get accustomed to the... aesthetic style, but the gameplay is surprisingly addictive. I've completed the first arc and I'm enjoying this game far more than I thought I would.

What does it mean when I've got an apple by my name?